You are right Poppy. People started watching PR with an expectation and to the great extent BT and Ekta have done their job beautifully. Middle class families can easily relate themselves with the characters and their attires of PR. They also used to enjoy the values, family quarrel ( Saas bahu Drama).
It is also true that whenever you are stretching a daily soap like a robber band it will increase but the quality will be lost and the purpose will not be fulfilled. Now, still I think a strong storyline can make audience compel to watch the show and of course the performers also matter.
Now, in PR all the casts are performing brilliantly from the very begining of the day. So, the main gap lies with the story, screenplay and editing. If you can deliver a story with more interesting matter, improved story telling capacity, then the same old and daily story will become attractive and if the audience can except a show for long 13th years ( in other channel), then any show can do it which I believe.